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Emily Moritz
CDM 3450
Kappeler
7 December 2014
Empowered Women in Washington, DC
Everyone knows that the United States has a vastly male dominated government. There
are many reasons why women have not been able to be elected into power positions on a regular
basis. One of the biggest reasons is how society sees women in general because of the depiction
of women in media and the stereotypes associated with them because of this. However when you
examine the inappropriate depiction of women, or lack of representation at all, in media
concerning politics specifically, or power positions in general it becomes very clear why it is so
hard for the women that do run for office to get elected. Because of how the media treats women
who attempt to make their name in DC, women shy away from these positions in real life which
allows for the male dominated corporations to avoid showing women in power positions in the
media which perpetuates this idea and creates a vicious cycle.
This topic has become very fascinating to me as I work on my thesisscene designing
for the new work play Up the Hill. This play is written by Keith Huff, one of the screen writers
for House of Cards and Mad Men. Despite plays not being a traditional form of mass media this
play in particular can be viewed as such because the writers background of screen writing
carries over into this script and the script has recently been sold to ABC Family as the basis for
the first season of the television version of this story. The play deals with a congressional intern,
Jill, who is raped by the congressman she works for. She confides in her mentors, hill staffers
who interned before her, who badger her with questions and convince her that it was indeed not
rape because it happens all the time and she must have wanted something out of it and can use it
as leverage. The show depicts DC and our government as a very transactional worldand the
best currency? Sexletting yourself get raped for your own success and benefit. Thankfully the

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conclusion to the show has some redemption to it with the script implying that Jill gets out of this
cycle and leaves DC. However, talking with the writer, the screenwriting will not show this
because there will, theoretically, be a second season which is really telling about how mass
media must depict these situations for ratings and money. Through my research to understand the
reality behind this twisted society that we live in, I found very clear examples through news
media and current popular television shows depicting women in political or powerful positions in
negative ways, sexualizing them as objects, showing that men hold power over them, or showing
them as cold, hard, over masculinized women who must not have a family life.
Of course there are the obvious situations such as the Monika Lewinsky scandalwhere
Monika was forced into the spotlight because of a stain on her blue dress (The 90s: The Last
Great Decade). But that was just the beginning. In her recent public address, Lewinsky expresses
how she believes she was the first victim of cyber bullying. The media ripped her to shreds
because of a mistake she made with a relationship when she was in her early twenties. Not that
affairs are ever acceptable in my opinion but everyone has made mistakes in relationships at this
age. What is worse though is that her affair with Clinton was not the first one that was
discovered. There was at least one other woman that came forward before they found out about
Lewinsky: Paula Jones (The 90s: The Last Great Decade). However, since Jones had already
proven her power over Clinton by filing a lawsuit for sexual harassment, the media did not focus
on her, instead they exploited Lewinsky and badgered every other intern and staffer that worked
with him, clearly expressing the power media and the government held over women.
One would think that after the Lewinsky scandal, women would be a little more careful
about their openness about relationships, especially with people in the political world. For
Jessica Cutler, this was very wrong. Cutler was a women in her mid twenties who moved to DC
with no plan but to be an unpaid intern on her friends sofa and keep a public blog. In this blog

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she graphically discussed how she was paid by congressmen for sex, justifying it as everyone
must do it because its the only way congressional staffers could survive on their salary. When
word got out about these and the congressman she was referring to by initials filed a lawsuit,
Cutler was fired but received a book deal, for four times the amount of the lawsuit (Jessica
Cutler), because sex sells. Cutler did most of the work herself of showing women in DC as
ditzyshowing how her and her friends would go out drinking, sleeping around for cash, and
doing drugs on a regular basis. But when the media got ahold of it they had a field day with the
headlines but it quickly sizzled out since she was not letting them get to her. She benefitted from
it again showing DC as transactional and showing sex as a tool for success.
Another largely clear depiction of women in the political light are the cases of Hilary
Clinton and Sarah Palin. On one side, Clinton is shown as over masculinized, dangerous, cold,
hard, basically a stereotypical bitch and even referred to as such in several television shows and
media headlines. Taking it even further, they emphasize how vicious and masculine she is by
some television shows calling her a boner killer (Miss Representation) and selling nutcrackers
that break walnuts between her legs. Even when they desexualize her, she still becomes
sexualized and is examined and valued by her sexuality or lack thereof. Clinton is also shown as
having lost her power because she lost the presidential election, however she was empowered
enough to run and still has had several power positions but those are ignored unless she is being
criticized. On the other side is Sarah Palin who tried to take a different approach to appeal to the
conservative republicans as the stereotypical family oriented mother. She was also was criticized
by media calling her weak and being questioned on who would take care of the kids if she was in
office (Miss Representation). She became over sexualized in the media, being referred to several
times by articles and even on a Sports news cast as an object for masturbation (Miss
Representation). The media tears down women who get any amount of power or even try to

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come close to power to dehumanize them which is a terrifying prospect to young girls who see
this in the media. We feed children all of these high prospects saying any child could be the next
president, and in grade school there is an equal number of boys and girls who have that ambition.
By the time those children reach high school the number of boys interested in that stays about the
same but the number of girls drops drastically (Miss Representation). There is something clearly
wrong with the media if it is having this effect on young girls.
Outside of news coverage, there are several television shows that depict DC, however up
until very recently they did not show women in power positions at least not in the strict sense.
Scandal for example does show Olivia Pope as a powerful woman but she is powerful because
she owns a firm that is responsible for covering up scandals to protect the images of political
leaders, one of those scandals being having an affair with the President. Even when media tries
to show a powerful woman she is sexualized beyond belief. House of Cards looks at DCs
depiction of women in a broader sense of corruption in general. In its description on Wikipedia it
is said to focus on manipulation, power, and doing bad things for the greater good which can
be seen very clearly as a theme that Keith Huff carries over into Up the Hill in terms of sex.
Television started to move forward to try to depict women in DC in a better light with
Commander in Chief, showing a female president. However the show only ran for one season
and showed her as very cold and masculine. It also received a lot of criticism because
conservative groups suspected it of trying to prepare society for Hilary Clintons campaign
(Commander in Chief: TV Series). Finally, this year we have a depiction of a woman in DC
who is not overtly sexualized or to masculine in Madam Secretary, showing her as someone
unafraid to take a stand but also a strong mother. Although, for the first half of its first season it is
described on Rotten Tomatoes as solid but unspectacular and only has a rating of 66% so we
will see how much of an impact it has.

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Television shows even outside of the sphere of DC also fail to appropriately show women
in power positions which feeds into the concept that women cannot hold power. Greys Anatomy
for example began the series with the two most powerful women being Dr. Miranda Bailey who
was only a resident and despite being a mother and having a compassionate side was referred to
as the Nazi and Dr. Addison Shepherd who was an adulteress and did not want children which
led to her affairs and eventual divorce from Derek. The other two main females, Meredith and
Christina were both interns who slept with attendings and were accused several times of using
their respective attendings power to pull rank but it has also been shown in the show that those
relationships could potentially cost the interns their chance of becoming a surgeon. The power
that the male parts held over them could have potentially drastically changed their lives. Even
later in the series Christina leaves all of her relationships because she doesnt feel that she can be
powerful if she dates another doctor and Meredith and Derek have a constant power struggle
even after their jobs are supposedly equal because of stereotypical roles.
While many would argue that women are equal today, it is completely not true. While we
have the legal rights to pursue our ambitions, we are not encouraged by society or media. Women
who are in power positions constantly receive backlash and criticism that men in those same
positions would not which discourages others to try to get those positions. In the political world,
women are misrepresented in America. Congress is supposed to be a democratic representation
of our society however only 20% of congress-persons are women; only 35 women have served
as governors versus 2,319 men as of 2011(Miss Representation). The United States is supposed
to be about equality and the land of opportunity, but we rank 90th for having women in
legislation: 71 other countries have had a ruling national leader who was a female including
Afghanistan. The US has not (Miss Representation).

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I believe this is because of the depiction or lack thereof of women in power positions in
the media. Marian Wright Edelman once said You cant be what you cant see. If our society is
not showing girls that they can be empowered in these ways, they have a much harder time
seeing it and men have a harder time accepting it. There is a blatant lack of powerful and
meaningful female protagonists in film and television. This begins from a very young age: In
animated films between 1937 and 2005, only 13 portrayed female protagonists and only one of
them pursued ambitions other than true love and in 2011 out of all protagonists in all American
movies only 11% were female (Miss Representation). This goes back to the concentration of
ownership in media. Of the six media corporations listed in Miss Representation the best ratio of
women to men on the executive board was 4 out of 13, most of them only had 2 women. Only
5.8% of television stations are owned by women (Miss Representation).
Clearly there is an issue not only in how the media is portraying in society as well. Going
back to the quote you cant be what you cant see, this is a cyclical problem. If we dont have
women in power positions to have a say, the message wont get to young girls that they are worth
more to the world than their looks, they can leave a more powerful legacy and effect more people
than only their children. The sad thing is that rape culture also plays a huge role into this concept
as well because rape is so prevalent in DC as a form of power and control, especially in cases
that are settled before the even hit the media. This creates a separate cycle of treatment of women
in news reports concerning political scandal. Wikipedia lists almost 70 reported cases of sexual
harassment in federal politics since 1970. 16 of those cases were in the last 4 years (List of
federal political sex scandals in the United States). This is 2014. And women are still threatened
away from having a say in our democracy by rape, power, and stereotypes that were established
hundreds of years ago.

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Works Cited
"Politically Incorrect." The 90's: The Last Great Decade. National Geographic. 8 July 2014.
Television.
"About the Film." Miss Representation. The Representation Project, 2011. Web. 06 Dec. 2014.
Breitman, Kendall. "Geena Davis: Women 'stalled' in D.C." POLITICO. N.p., 29 Sept. 2014.
Web. 06 Dec. 2014.
"Commander in Chief: TV Series." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.
"Jessica Cutler." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 7 Jan. 2014. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
"List of Federal Political Sex Scandals in the United States." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept.
2014.
Miss Representation. Dir. Jennifer S. Newsome. Girls Club Entertainment, 2011. Netflix. Web. 6
Dec. 2014.
Rothstein, Betsy. "Ex-aide's Depiction of D.C. Is Sleazy." TheHill. N.p., 8 June 2005. Web. 15
Sept. 2014.